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Really digging deep ... to get to 400mm

Okay, I went and committed the "ultimate sin" and mounted the CZ 135mm f/1.8 on the Kenko3x T/C. to produce a 405mm f/5 lens. You know what? It ain't half bad! I just did a couple of preliminaries with it, and I am hopeful and rather impressed with the acceptable sharpness and limited Chromatic Aberration of an indicated aperture of "f/6.3"

I had not really thought about doing something like this until 'Rooz' and Peter started going back and forth about the "heinous" act of mounting the Minolta AF 200mm f/2.8's APO G HS on a T/C. Oh, believe me that the Zeiss lens' focus speed is nothing to write home about (it is slow as heck), riding on a T/C, but for a quick fix ... it is definitely worth a look.

It would seem to be a "fair fight" ... and just what the doctor ordered.

Last edited by DonSchap; 09-12-2009 at 11:53 PM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Okay, I went and committed the "ultimate sin" and mounted the CZ 135mm f/1.8 on the Kenko3x T/C. to produce a 405mm f/5 lens. You know what? It ain't half bad! I just did a couple of preliminaries with it, and I am hopeful and rather impressed with the acceptable sharpness and limited Chromatic Aberration of an indicated aperture of "f/6.3"

Okay, can someone find Don and do like a Child Protective Services thing with his better lenses? Just take "custody" until he tosses at least the stuff Rooz listed in the "Win a Tamron" thread.

Seriously, Don, throw out like 90% of your gear (or sell it, whatever), and stop doing crap like this. Slinging a giant bag is pointless if your lenses are either sub-par or you don't know what to do with them, or worse, mixing the awesome (CZ 135MM) with the phenomenally crappy (a Kenko teleconverter? Really?).

Okay, I went and committed the "ultimate sin" and mounted the CZ 135mm f/1.8 on the Kenko3x T/C. to produce a 405mm f/5 lens. You know what? It ain't half bad! I just did a couple of preliminaries with it, and I am hopeful and rather impressed with the acceptable sharpness and limited Chromatic Aberration of an indicated aperture of "f/6.3"

I had not really thought about doing something like this until 'Rooz' and Peter started going back and forth about the "heinous" act of mounting the Minolta AF 200mm f/2.8's APO G HS on a T/C. Oh, believe me that the Zeiss lens' focus speed is nothing to write home about (it is slow as heck), riding on a T/C, but for a quick fix ... it is definitely worth a look.

i dont know why you bothered shelling out the money for the zeiss 135 or the a850. you could save yourself a heck of alot of money and time by just buying a canon sx10 and be done with it. its downright criminal to be treating a zeiss lens with such disrespect. here i am wishing for a zeiss 21mm to af on my nikon body cos of its superb optics and you;re whacking a 3xtc onto yours effectively turning a pristine lens into a hunk of junk.

Yeah, really. There are no other SONY compatible 3x T/Cs out there. So it is what it is ... optical madness and the thrill of trying stuff that other people just cannot, due to lack equipment of whatever.

Yes, as I stated earlier, you can get by with a limited sack of glass ... but you will pay through the nose. I have not seen many get by who have not paid the price of admission to this club.

Anyway ... so it goes.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Yeah, really. There are no other SONY compatible 3x T/Cs out there. So it is what it is ... optical madness and the thrill of trying stuff that other people just cannot, due to lack equipment of whatever.

You could've saved yourself a lot of money and just got one of those $20 eBay screw in "telephoto" adapters. Couldn't be much worse than what you've got now.

Originally Posted by DonSchap

Yes, as I stated earlier, you can get by with a limited sack of glass ... but you will pay through the nose. I have not seen many get by who have not paid the price of admission to this club.

Anyway ... so it goes.

I've found that what you think and what's realistic (or true, for that matter) are often phenomenally different things. You don't need four - five lenses that cover one focal length - you need one. One good one. "Nickel and diming" yourself to death with crappy lenses instead of buying that one good quality lens will be far, far, FAR worse in the long run than using a short set of really good glass.

APS-C only lenses

I took a few minutes to mount the SIGMA AF 10-20mm f/4-5.6 DC EX, to see how it performed with α850/α900. Obviously, you have to switch to APS-C crop mode (menu option) to get proper framing, but it becomes a 16-30mm lens in that mode. It is kind of strange, admittedly, to see through the Optical Viewfinder and see the fuzzy vignetted image, yet it becomes a full framed LCD image after image is taken.

If the upcoming Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8 (~$700) comes out in the SONY mount, this could be a heck of a combination, as it becomes 17-24mm f/2.8, which meets up excellently with the SONY CZ 24-70mm f/2.8 ... as an interim lens as you are saving up to obtain the SONY CZ 16-35mm f/2.8 ($1899)

Another Tokina idea is the APS-C lens, the AT-X 16.5-135mm f/3.5-5.6 becomes a 25-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens on the α850/α900, in crop mode.

Last edited by DonSchap; 09-14-2009 at 12:41 PM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Puppy update ... in reflection

I last reported in this thread that my dog had some serious issues with his gait ... and feared for a torn ACL tendon. Went back to the Vet, today, because my pup was getting worse, losing weight, no wanting to eat and nearly unable to walk at all. I mean ... it freaks you out. It couldn't be due to an injury like that.

It is worse ... it's cancer. Appears to be a huge tumor hidden inside his left hip and literally closing off his alimentary canal. We have some rapid and serious diagnostic work to do to investigate this further, but at his advanced age (10 yrs) ... the options are narrowing pretty darn quick.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi